The following invention relates to a needle system, and more particularly to a needle system which can be used during angiographic procedures.
At the beginning of an angiographic procedure, a needle is placed into an artery, such as the femoral artery. It is important to confirm that the needle is in an artery and one method of doing this is to visualize the blood exiting from the needle, which will have pulsatile flow if the needle is in an artery. Upon entry, the physician is forced to quickly insert the guidewire in order to stop the pulsatile flow of blood from the artery. Consequently, there is very limited time to adjust needle position to ensure optimal needle placement and location. Due to the pulsatile nature of the arterial flow, health professionals may inadvertently come in contact with the blood. To prevent the spread of blood-borne infections it is important to limit or prevent such contact.
Needle assemblies, which permit visualization of the arterial blood and which protect health professionals from inadvertent contact with the arterial blood are known in the art. One example of such a needle assembly is U.S. Pat. No. 5,122,121 entitled "Safety Needle Assembly". Although the needle assembly of '121 patent is a useful assembly, the visualization of arterial pulsatile blood pressure can be cumbersome.
Further, the needle assembly of the '121 patent includes a relatively large, collection bag which when filled with blood becomes cumbersome. Further, the needle assembly of '121 incorporates a 3-way stopcock which if inadvertently left in the open position will allow pulsatile arterial blood flow to exit the needle assembly. Another needle which provides for visualization of blood flow is the Arrow-Fischell Vascular Access Needle which has an abnormally long, rigid and thus cumbersome hub portion in which the arterial pulse can be observed.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a needle system which permits easy visualization of the flow of arterial blood therein.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a system which is as similar to conventional arterial access needles as possible while being relatively small and easy to use.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a needle system which protects the health professional from inadvertent contact with the arterial blood.
It is another object of the invention to provide a means of needle system access that affords the physician unlimited time to safely place the needle and guidewire into the artery without blood loss.
It is another object of the invention to provide visual pulsatile optimization that allows subtle needle manipulation or fine tuning to ensure optimal needle placement within the artery.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a means for test injection of imaging agents concurrently with the placement of the needle or needle and guidewire for the purposes of verifying needle and or guidewire placement and location while maintaining pulsatile blood flow visualization.